What Were The Giants Thinking?

Arizona State finished the first season under coach Herm Edwards a few steps short of reaching a big-time bowl game. But the opponent in the Las Vegas Bowl on Saturday is no slouch. The No. 21-ranked Fresno State Bulldogs are for real. They’re 11-2 on the year, with losses to a usually-stout Boise State team […]

Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly polling roundup. Poll of the week It’s that time of year again. Snow is falling, sleigh bells are ringing and Congress still hasn’t figured out how to fund important parts of the government. In a televised meeting with Democratic leaders at the White House on Tuesday, President Trump said he […]

This week on the show, Hot Takedown analyzes the data behind the New York Giants’ controversial No. 6 pick in the NFL draft, Duke quarterback Daniel Jones. Todd McShay, an analyst for ESPN, is skeptical of Jones’s NFL potential based on his performance under pressure. While we agree that the stats don’t paint a bright future for Jones in the NFL, we disagree on how best to assess his prospects.
For our second segment, ESPN NBA analyst and FiveThirtyEight contributor Kirk Goldsberry joins the team to discuss his new book, “SprawlBall: A Visual Tour of the New Era of the NBA.” Through detailed data visualizations, “SprawlBall” describes how the 3-point line has transformed the NBA and how it risks ruining the game’s future.
In our Rabbit Hole of the Week, Geoff exposes his lifelong appreciation of (and poor betting record on) the Kentucky Derby. He explains the rationale behind voting for the favorite across sports and why he still won’t take his own advice.
Here’s what we’re looking at this week:

“SprawlBall: A Visual Tour of the New Era of the NBA” by Kirk Goldsberry, illustrated by Aaron Dana.
Patrik Stefan’s epic miss that broke Neil’s heart.
FiveThirtyEight’s Josh Hermsmeyer devised a metric for projecting college quarterback success in the NFL.
ProFootballFocus’s analysis of Duke’s Daniel Jones ahead of the draft.